The Twists and Turns on an 11-Month Slog to a Budget Deal

Copies of President Trump’s initial budget outline in March at the Government Publishing Office bookstore in Washington. It called for big military spending increases and deep cuts to a broad part of the federal bureaucracy.Credit...Shawn Thew/European Pressphoto Agency

WASHINGTON — From the moment in March when President Trump proposed his budget for 2018, Washington has been struggling to reach any consensus on spending. Congress finally appears to have found one, largely without Mr. Trump’s help. Here’s a look at how lawmakers got there.

March 16

Barely two months into his term, Mr. Trump proposed an initial budget outline — known as a “skinny budget” — that called for big military spending increases and deep cuts to a broad part of the federal bureaucracy, making good on his campaign promise to reorder the priorities in the nation’s capital and dismantle what his administration calls “the administrative state.” It was largely dismissed by members of both parties.

May 23

When the president’s full budget was released in May, it largely followed his earlier outline: a 10 percent increase in spending for the military but deep cuts in programs for the poor, health care and government agencies. Called “A New Foundation for American Greatness,” the document included $2.6 billion for border security, including the beginning of a wall on the border with Mexico.

Sept. 6

Mr. Trump struck a bipartisan deal to increase the debt limit and keep the government open until mid-December, and told Democrats that he wanted to do something to help the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers. “Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I,” the president said, referring to the top Democrats in the Senate and the House, Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Sept. 13

The president had dinner with “Chuck and Nancy” in the Blue Room of the White House and discussed a possible deal in which Congress would give legal status to Dreamers in exchange for border security. The two Democrats left the dinner and declared that they had reached “a deal” with the president.

Sept. 14

Conservatives recoiled at the idea of Mr. Trump embracing what they call amnesty for lawbreakers in granting the Dreamers legal status. The White House said that no deal had been reached. Mr. Trump tweeted: “No deal was made last night on DACA. Massive border security would have to be agreed to in exchange for consent.” He said that would include “the wall.”

Oct. 1

The new fiscal year began without Congress passing any of the 12 appropriations bills necessary to fund the government. The federal government was now operating on stopgap bills that maintained spending at the previous year’s levels. Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program was allowed to lapse.

Dec. 7

With a government shutdown looming, Democrats agreed to a two-week stopgap spending measure that did not include legislation to legalize the Dreamers. The bill gave lawmakers more time to try to work out a bipartisan compromise on the immigration issue.

Dec. 21

Democrats and Republicans agreed to another stopgap spending measure without immigration legislation, after securing a promise from Republican leaders to consider an immigration bill if a bipartisan compromise was reached after the first of the year. Passage of the stopgap measure angered some Democrats, who said they should have held out on behalf of the Dreamers.

Jan. 11

A bipartisan group of senators announced that they had reached a deal on immigration legislation that would legalize Dreamers, add to border security, end the so-called diversity visa lottery, and consider restoring temporary protections for Haitians and others in the United States because of disasters. Later, in an Oval Office meeting with Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, and Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, to discuss their compromise legislation, Mr. Trump grew angry and derided African nations and disparaged Haiti.

Jan. 18

The House passed a one-month stopgap spending measure without addressing the status of the Dreamers. Senate Democrats united around demands that any spending bill must protect the Dreamers, expand federal intervention in the opioid crisis, assist hurricane-battered Puerto Rico, and include an agreement on a longer-term budget deal that would raise strict spending caps on military and nonmilitary spending.

Jan. 19

Much of the federal government shut down at midnight after the stopgap spending measure ran out amid gridlock in the Senate. Most Democrats and a handful of Republicans followed the lead of Mr. Schumer, who refused to agree to a short-term spending plan without legislation to protect the Dreamers and address other Democratic priorities. Republicans called it the “Schumer Shutdown.”

Jan. 22

The three-day shutdown ended after the Senate reached an agreement that included another short-term measure to fund the government through Feb. 8 and a pledge by Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, to allow an immigration vote in the coming weeks. The temporary deal set the stage for a battle over the Dreamers.

Jan. 25

The president proposed immigration legislation that would provide a path to citizenship for nearly 1.8 million young undocumented immigrants in exchange for $25 billion for a border wall and significant changes to limit legal immigration. Mr. Trump called it “extremely generous,” but Democrats, some Republicans and immigrant rights activists rejected it outright.

Feb. 6

Even as congressional negotiators closed in on a spending deal that would avoid dealing with the immigration issue, Mr. Trump surprised lawmakers by insisting that he would welcome a shutdown over immigration.

Feb. 7

Mr. McConnell and Mr. Schumer announced a deal on a long-term spending plan that would significantly increase both military spending — a key to winning Republican support — and Democratic domestic priorities. The plan, if passed, would officially reject Mr. Trump’s efforts to use the federal budget to reorder the nation’s priorities and attack the bureaucracy.

Feb. 9

The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. Friday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, delayed a vote on the plan. Mr. Paul, infuriated with the spending increases included in the deal, repeatedly objected to a vote in protest, but the Senate later approved the plan.